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Making headlines: ANC dismisses court challenge of its December conference as frivolous; Nomvula Mokonyane says the mandate for water provision and support knows no politics; And, Dlamini blames former Sassa CEO in payment scandal

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

ANC dismisses court challenge of its December conference as frivolous

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The African National Congress has rejected a court application to declare its 54th national elective conference null and void, as an abuse of court processes and frivolous.

This week, the party's deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte filed a responding affidavit against ANC member Vincent Myeni, who approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria asking for the December conference's results for the ANC's top six positions to be set aside and for fresh elections to take place.

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In her court papers, Duarte asks the court to strike the matter off the roll with costs against Myeni.

She argued that Myeni failed to show urgency and could also not prove he was a member of the ANC in good standing.

Nomvula Mokonyane says the mandate for water provision and support knows no politics

Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane are looking for a scapegoat on the water crisis.

Yesterday during a public meeting both Zille and Maimane said the responsibility to provide bulk water lay with the national department.

Mokonyane, yesterday said that her department would not be drawn into petty political squabbles while the people and economy of the Western Cape were on the verge of a possible water supply blackout.

She was responding to Zille, Maimane and the City of Cape Town's suggestions that the city had received little to no financial support from her department.

Mokonyane accused Zille and Maimane of absolving themselves of their responsibilities in the management of the water crisis.

And, Dlamini blames former Sassa CEO in payment scandal

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has put some of the blame on former South African Social Security Agency CEO Thokozani Magwaza for the social security agency grant scandal.

Dlamini yesterday faced her third day of gruelling cross-examination.

She was testifying at the Office of the Chief Justice in Midrand, north of Gauteng, at an inquiry into her role and liability in the 2017 social grant crisis.

The Constitutional Court had appointed retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe to investigate whether Dlamini should be held personally accountable for costs incurred in the Sassa payment scandal.

Dlamini, during cross-examination by Magwaza's lawyer, Advocate Richard Solomon, suggested that Magwaza lied in his submissions that she was in charge of workstreams that have come under scrutiny in the inquiry.

Also making headlines:
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said the upcoming budget, to be unveiled in the spring, would involve interventions to boost confidence and grow the economy, as part of what he described as "a difficult fiscal framework".

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today
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The African National Congress (ANC) has a new leader. The question is whether Cyril Ramaphosa is the next President of South Africa. In other words, will Ramaphosa lead the ANC to victory in the national election in 2019, and will the ANC recoup the electoral losses it suffered in the last two elections? Whether it can is contingent on the quality of leadership Ramaphosa will provide and the state of the ruling past after last year’s fifty-fourth national conference, at which he succeeded Jacob Zuma as the landlord of Luthuli House. To the extent that unity was the dominant theme in the lead-up to the national conference, is Ramaphosa equal to the task of uniting the ANC behind his leadership and is he going to succeed in recreating this factionalised organism in his image? Put differently, how much of Zuma’s ANC will be in the belly of Rmaphosa’s ANC? Are the digestive juices in the belly of Ramaphosa’s ANC strong enough to dissolve Zuma’s ANC? →